Today, overmolded electronic assemblies are being increasingly utilized in situations where an electronic assembly is subject to environmental conditions. In a typical overmolded electronic assembly, a mold is utilized that closes on multiple surfaces, at least one of which may include a printed circuit board (PCB), of a product. In electronic assemblies that implement heat sink backplates, it is typical for one portion of the mold to close on a back surface of the heat sink backplate and another portion of the mold to close on a portion of an electrical connector associated with a PCB. It should be appreciated that the molding clamp cycle may cause damage to an electronic assembly to be overmolded, as a typical press that clamps portions of the mold together provides a force in the range of sixty to one-hundred twenty tons. As such, any difference in the dimensions of the electronic assembly and the mold may result in compound leakage if the assembly is too thin or crushing or displacement of the assembly, or a portion of the assembly, when the assembly is too thick.
It should be appreciated that an electronic assembly to be overmolded may exhibit tolerance stack-ups associated with the assembly's backplate, PCB and connector shroud. In an exemplary process, when the mold closes on the electronic assembly, the associated PCB may be deflected which can result in damage to the electronic assembly. For example, when the PCB includes flip-chips whose back surfaces are thermally coupled to the backplate, the deflection can be transmitted to fragile non-underfilled solder joints of the flip-chip, resulting in cracked and/or smashed bumps and, thus, damaging the electronic assembly and/or reducing the life of the electronic assembly.
What is needed is a technique to decouple movement of a connector that is electrically coupled to a printed circuit board (PCB), during overmolding of an electronic assembly, such that movement of the connector does not result in flexure of the PCB and resultant damage to the electronic assembly.